


Tales of the Gotham Squad

by nightsstarr



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Gotham Squad, oneshots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-07
Updated: 2014-03-01
Packaged: 2018-11-30 23:05:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11473539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightsstarr/pseuds/nightsstarr
Summary: Damian Wayne, Colin Wilkes, and Mar'i Grayson are fast friends. They all know what it's like to be burdened with powers from a young age. These three Gothamite pals get up to a lot of trouble--these are their chronicles.Collection of unrelated oneshots.Gotham Squad was originally created bysodalimepopon tumblr! Please do not use these characters and present them as Gotham Squad, this idea is not a headcanon it actually belongs to someone. All the works I am posting here were posted with her knowledge and I would not add more to this universe without her permission first.





	1. Chapter 1

“How long are you gonna be gone for?” Colin asked, frowning, his eyebrows furrowed with worry.

“Oh, I don’t know. My mom and I have some things to work out with my aunt.”

“What’re we gonna do?” Colin asked forlornly, eyeing Mar’i sadly. “The three of us had a thing going…”

She lifted into the air and landed in front of him. “I know, I’m sorry.” She wound her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a hug. “I’m gonna miss you.”

“It’s hardly a tragedy,” Damian scoffed from behind them. “There are several other candidates as the third member of our team—Batgirl, for instance.”

Mar’i frowned at him and shot a weak spray of starbolts at him from her eyes, strong enough to push him back without incurring further harm. “Nell isn’t going to want to put up with you. She’s not as nice as me.”

“Nice?” Damian spluttered, eyebrows raised nearly to his hairline. “Your definition must be different than mine.”

“Can’t you give it a rest just for now?” Colin snapped. “This is serious.”

“I’m being completely serious.” Damian adjusted his black and yellow jacket and took up his previous stance, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed in front of him. “Grayson’s skills are slightly above average at best. It shouldn’t be difficult to adjust to a new skill set.” The harsh white light from the chandelier that hung above them sharpened his features, shadowing his cheeks with the lines of his eyelashes as he let his gaze drop to the floor. “However, I suppose it will be difficult till adjust to the absence of the dynamics of her personality.”

Colin and Mar’i exchanged a confused glance.

“I think he says he’ll miss you,” Colin said, incredulous.

“I thought I was hearing things,” Mar’i answered, giggling as Damian rolled his eyes. She flew over to him and dragged him by the sleeve of his jacket to where Colin stood so she could wrap an arm around both of them.

“I’m gonna miss you both,” she admitted, squeezing them affectionately. She brushed her lips against Colin’s forehead, then turned to Damian and pulled his head down so she could do the same to him.

He tolerated the gesture, frowning, but Mar’i noticed a slight red tinge to his cheeks.

“Oh, X’hal, I wasn’t going to get all worked up…”

“We’ll write,” Colin soothed, then looked at Damian for confirmation.

“It is possible, through the use of the Watchtower, to send intergalactic letters, though highly unlikely that I will spare the time for such a thing. I’m a busy man.”

“We’ll write,” Colin assured her more confidently, earning a glare from Damian.

“Perhaps,” Damian amended.

“Mar’i,” Dick’s voice called from behind the door. “It’s almost time to go.”

She bit her lip and flew over to the door. “Bye guys,” she whispered, and she found that her eyes were full of tears.

She disappeared through the door, the only evidence that she was ever there the raised temperature of the metal door handle and the heaviness in the hearts of the two boys she had left behind.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Letter kiss send with the Gotham Squad! 
> 
> Send your lover a kiss in a love letter by writing the letter x several times in a row at the bottom of a letter such as XXXXX.

Rain pattered on the window of Colin’s apartment, gently but persistently. The sound was mostly drowned out by the whine of the tea kettle, which he quickly quieted by moving it to a cold burner and cutting the gas.

He sloshed hot water over a tea bag, white steam curling through the ait. The buzzer went off, indicating that someone was at the front door of the building. Colin glanced at the teacup and pressed the intercom, allowing him to speak with the potential visitor.

“Hello?”

“Colin, let me in,” Damian’s voice commanded, sounding bored as usual.

“Do you want some tea?” Colin asked politely without moving for the buzzer.

“I… what? Let me in, Wilkes, it’s raining.”

“It’s not a hard question,” the redhead sulked. Damian always had to make everything difficult.

“No, I don’t—actually, yes, I suppose I’ll take a cup.”

“Okay.” Colin jammed the button, opening the door and allowing Damian access to the lobby and the rest of the building.

About a minute later, after Colin had poured another cup of tea, the door opened and Damian, slightly damp but in generally good spirits, stepped through.

“I’ve got mail,” he said, and he pulled two envelopes from a pocket within his raincoat.

Colin took both of them, freeing up Damian’s hands so he could take off his coat, and inspected the neat writing on the front of the envelopes. There wasn’t a return address in the left corner, or a stamp in the right, and in fact there wasn’t even an address in the middle. Instead Damian and Colin’s name were spelled in curling script on the front.

Colin’s voice was excited. “Mar’i wrote?”

“We would have gotten them sooner, except the Justice League had to inspect them and authorize them before allowing my father to bring them to me.”

“So… Martian Manhunter went through my mail?”

Damian slung his coat on the back of the chair in the kitchen and held his hand out for his letter. “It was a scan for alien germs, actually.”

They tore the envelopes at the same time, revealing folded parchment-like paper with an odd, dry texture. The ink was purple and appeared to be from a nib-like pen, the letters thin from certain strokes amd wide from others.

Colin’s letter assured him that she was settling in to her room at the Tamaranean palace, described what it was like and mentioned that she’d already started a training regimen on Okaara, the planet of the warlords. Tamaran seemed part sci-fi, part romantic novel to him. He could hardly picture it, even with a detailed description from Mar’i.

The letter ended with her assurance that she’d be back in a few months, and that he could write to her by giving a letter to Damian or her dad and they’d take care of it.

It was signed ‘XOXO’ and what Colin presumed was Mar’i’s name in Tamaranean glyphs, which was pretty looking enough to someone who couldn’t fathom how the symbols fit together. She’d signed it under that, too.

Colin glanced up from his letter to find Damian staring at his, a faint red tinge over his cheeks.

“Damian?” he called, confused.

Damian’s eyes flicked up, giving him an almost guilty look. “What?”

“What did yours say?”

“Nothing important,” the Wayne hair said quickly, folding the papers carefully and laying them on the table. “Where’s the tea you made?”

Colin nodded in the direction of the counter where both cups sat, still steaming.

Damian plucked out the tea bag and threw it in the sink, and he lifted the cup to his mouth.

While he was distracted, Colin took the opportunity to pick up his letter. Something in it had freaked Damian out that much was apparent.

“This tea tastes cheap,” he complained the way he always did.

“It’s the same brand I buy every time,” Colin muttered as he scanned Damian’s letter. Whereas she explained to Colin the nuances of the palace and the scenery around her, for Damian she went into more detail about Okaara and the training regimen she was doing. Also absent from Colin’s letter was the mention of Marras, a Tamaranean prince who was helping oversee her training.

“Hey,” Damian snapped when he realized what Colin was doing.

“You can read mine,” Colin said to shut him up.

“I don’t want to read yours. You shouldn’t go through other people’s mail.” He stalked over to Colin and made to snatch the paper from his hand, but Colin grabbed his wrist in a tight grip.

If he wasn’t careful, Damian would start an actual fistfight. He was almost finished reading, though, and he still didn’t see anything—

Oh. At the end of the letter, Mar’i left her name in glyphs and print, but she also left a line of X’s.

Damian snatched for the letter with his free hand and wrenched his wrist out of Colin’s grip.

“Okay,” Colin began gently. “So… You’re freaking out because she left you pretend kisses?”

“No!” Damian insisted, although a deep blush covered his cheeks.

“I’m not making fun of you. I mean, look at mine.” Colin reached for his letter and put it out in front of him so Damian could see over his shoulder. “It’s different, a little.”

“It doesn’t really mean anything,” Damian muttered.

“Maybe not. But what if it does?”

“What am I meant to do, ask her?” Damian snapped annoyed.

“That is what a normal person would do when they’re confused about something.”

“I’m not doing that.”

Damian placed the letter in his pocket after carefully folding it and putting it in its envelope. He took his mug of tea and sipped it quietly. “What do you take in your tea, Wilkes? Sugar?”

“Yeah, two spoonfuls.”

Damian complained about being forced to do manual labor when he was the guest of the house, but Colin wasn’t paying attention. He’d known that Damian and Mar’i had some kind of weird mutual crush going on, but it looked like that was going to change. Why Damian liked her was easy to see; she was pretty, nice, capable, and she didn’t let Damian boss her around. He couldn’t get why she liked him, though. He was bossy and condescending, and sure there were other layers of his personality that Colin knew pretty well from being his friend for so long, but it took a while to get him to show it. He didn’t know that Mar’i had cracked through the first layer.

Whatever happened, he didn’t want Mar’i to get hurt.


	3. Cat AU Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Gotham Squad Cat AU xD

“Oh, great X'hal,” Mar'i muttered, her hands clapped over her mouth. In front of her were two kittens, one black and gray and the other gingery and striped. It was easy to tell what had happened, from the way the smoky black cat sat regally, bright blue eyes startling against its fur but shaped by supreme annoyance and the way the ginger cat trotted over to her as soon as she entered the Firewall.

She scooped the ginger cat up and stroked her fingers along its back, making it purr. “Colin?” she asked fretfully, wincing at the mournful mew the cat gave in reply.

“And don’t tell me that adorable heap of fur is Damian al Ghul-Wayne.”

The smoky cat glared at her, an annoyed warning growl from deep in its throat displaying its displeasure.

“Don’t be such a baby,” she sighed, picking the kitten up by the scruff of its neck. “We’ll get you guys to Aunt Raven and then you can tall me how this happened, okay?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Okay, please write more cat AU

Mar’i put the wicker basket she’d been carrying down at her feet.

The meeting with her Aunt Raven went fine, but—

A smoke-colored kitten with huge blue eyes nosed its way through the material Mar’i had used to cover the basket. He mewed mournfully at her.

The giggle that escaped her lips was sure to make him angry, but she couldn’t help it. He was so cute.

“I’m sorry, Dami,” she cooed, crouching to scratch him between the ears. “Aunt Raven said it’ll wear off before noon tomorrow. At least it’s not permanent.

He huffed at her and ducked his head, stalking away to the dish Mar’i set on the floor the transformed kittens in case they got thirsty.

The blanket over the top of the basket shifted, and Mar’i lifted it to reveal the tabby kitten blinking up at her. “At least you’ll let me pet you,” she said to Colin, scratching his chin.

“I don’t really know what tell the two of you. We should probably head to bed, I guess.”

She’d chosen one of the bigger safehouses, thinking Colin and Damian might be tired and need to rest when they recovered from their ordeal. This one had enough room for each of them to have their own room.

Colin padded down the hall after her, not seeming to want to leave her side.

“No, Colin,” she said as he tried to enter her room. “I’m going to change so you have to stay out here.”

He tilted his head and let his ears droop, fixing her with the saddest look she’d ever seen.

“Oh,” she cooed, adopting a baby-voice without realizing it. “Just let me change and then you can come in, okay?”

Satisfied, Colin sat and wrapped his tail over his feet, waiting patiently.

There weren’t any of her clothes in this particular safe house, but between clothes left over from various members of the Batfamily—clean underoos Aunt Steph wouldn’t mind her borrowing if she washed them, a pair of Uncle Tim’s sweatpants, a loose shirt that belonged to her Uncle Jay—she was able to assemble a working pair of pajamas.

Fully clothed, she kicked her dirty laundry to the corner of the room and went to let Colin in.

“Oh!”

Sitting in front of her door was not one but two fluffy kittens, looking up at her expectantly.

“Both of you wanna—?” she let her voice trail off as Damian strutted into her room and leaped onto her bed, making himself comfortable on her pillow, and Colin trotted in after him.

“Okay, look,” she began, feeling odd about talking to two cats. “I know you’re cat-ified right now, but it’s still weird, both of you sleeping in my bed.”

They both blinked at her, no seeming to care.

“You can understand me, right? I can go to one of the other rooms and leave you guys in here,” she offered.

Colin mewed pitifully, melting her heart.

“X’hal, don’t do that. Fine, whatever. My dad would flip out, just so both of you know.” she flicked the light, leaving plenty of illumination from the city around them, and approached the bed. Once she got comfortable, Colin laid against her hip while Damian nestled into her pillow, avoiding her hair.

“Don’t worry, guys,” she murmured, stroking soft kitty fur gently. “I know that later Damian will say he was never worried, but Raven knows what she’s talking about. Soon it’ll be tomorrow and you’ll be good as new.”

When she woke the next morning to find herself curled against Damian’s shoulder and Colin’s forehead pressed against her knees, with the blankets dividing them, she couldn’t help but feel immensely relieved. The boys seemed tired, like she predicted, and she wriggled out from the warmth of the bed, careful not to wake them, and kissed them both on the forehead before rummaging through the cabinets in the kitchen with the intent of waking them with breakfast smells.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Zombie AU

Damian pushed a breath out from the bottom of his lungs, his hands which had always been so steady shaking as he leveled his sword.

He’d pushed Mar’i behind him so she wouldn’t have to watch, but she peered over his shoulder and he could hear ugly sobs tearing at her throat.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered in Arabic before drawing back his arm to gather momentum for a clean slice.

“No!” Mar’i wailed, her voice watery as she jumped at Damian, latching onto his arm as he was about to swing the sword in a swooping arc. “Wait!” Her voice was thick with crying and he could feel the wetness of tears she’d scrubbed away with the back of her palm as she clung to him.

“L-look,” she said shakily, still sobbing. “He’s not—he’s still—”

She seemed unable to finish her sentence, but Damian peered at Colin closely, sword held out with the sharp side pointed at his best friend. Colin looked up at him through cloudy eyes, his skin pallid and chalky-white, his cheeks noticeably sunken—he grunted. At the noise, Mar’i wound her fingers into Damian’s shirt, frightened.

It wasn’t a mindless grunt, however. It was an obvious answer to Damian’s call of his name.

Colin had gotten bitten on their way here. Nowhere was safe, not the Manor, not the commissioner’s office, not even the Kent farm. Ironically, the only safe place left was Arkham.

They almost made it without incident, but when they arrived Harley Quinn shrieked and pointed at Colin’s arm—there was no doubt he’d been bitten.

They waited—not all bites were deadly—but it was clear that Colin was transforming. The inmates pushed him into a cell and urged Damian to finish it.

He almost did, too.

“That’s… Why’s he still sentient?” Damian demanded, shouting at Mar’i in his emotional turmoil. He’d almost killed his best friend.

“It-it must be the V-venom,” Mar’i explained hurriedly, fighting to calm herself. “It’s the only thing—h-he’s still a zombie he’s just—you ever see Warm Bodies?”

Ignoring the last part, Damian pushed her out of the cell and locked it behind them, the bars throwing shadows over Colin’s face. “We’ll wait a few more hours and if he truly is not a zombie, we’ll decide what to do then.”

Mar’i nodded vigorously and Damian wrapped a hand around the bars. Colin looked so pitiful slumped on the floor—if he was sentient, it was obvious the transformation wasn’t pleasant. Maybe it was selfish, but Damian hoped that he was sentient, at least sentient enough to keep from endangering them while Damian devised a way to get to a Lazarus Pit.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Gotham Squad in a grocery store AU if you can

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aged them down for this one, for cute-factor.

“Look!” Mar’i shouted gleefully. Colin tipped his head to the side curiously while Damian rushed to her side, mistaking her amusement for worry.

“It’s raining on the vegetables!”

Damian squinted into the misty spray raining down from a small sprinkler system fixed over the rows of vegetables.

Mar’i reached out a hand, palm up and fingers splayed, and let the mist brush her skin.

“Don’t play in the sprinklers,” Colin scolded, taking her wrist gently and bringing her away from the vegetables.

“We just need to pick up some shortening for Alfred and some milk.”

“I don’t see why we have to,” Damian growled, annoyed. “Drake’s the one that drinks far more milk than is healthy.” He scrunched his nose at the memory.

“I think I heard Alfred mention something about getting us out of the house,” Colin said thoughtfully. “Anyway, what aisle is shortening in?”

“I can’t believe you don’t have servants to do this sort of menial labor for you,” Damian muttered, annoyed.

“Shortening?” Mar’i repeated. “I don’t think Damian needs any more shortening. Maybe heightening.” She drew an invisible line from the crown of her head to the space above Damian’s. “Definitely heightening,” she added with a giggle.

“Urrrgh,” Damian sighed before lapsing into quick, exasperated Arabic. “I’ll find it on my own. You two stay here.”

“Wait—!” Colin began. But Damian was gone before Colin could stop him.

“Good idea! You look that way, and I’ll go over here—”

Colin yanked on Mar’i’s wrist as he felt her begin to hover. “No flying outside of the Manor!” he reminded her desperately.

“Oh, right. I forgot.”

Colin slapped his hand against his forehead, crumpling Alfred’s short shopping list as he did. “This is gonna be harder than I thought,” he lamented.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know why this happened. Actually, I do–that Black Widow poster going around that was stupidly photoshopped made me think ‘huh, I wonder what Scarlet thinks about that’ and it also made me think about how ridiculous the portrayal of women in comics often is, which brought me to that panel of Kori from RHATO with the awful proportions and the bathing suit and the hair flip. I am sorry.

“Come on, Mar'i,” Colin laughed as he pulled his shirt over his head.

“No! I’m not doing it!” she giggled back, gingerly releasing the ladder at the edge of the pool and bobbing beneath the surface of the water.

The day was swelteringly hot, oppressive heat clinging to the air and dampening skin and moods all around. It was Mar'i’s idea to take shelter in the pool at the Manor, and it was one that the boys didn’t need much convincing to agree to.

Colin’s shirt joined Mar'i’s discarded clothing–jean shorts, flip flops, and a midriff-baring tee shirt–and he reached in the pocket of his swim trunks for his cell phone. “Come on, it’s just for fun.”

She stuck her tongue out at him. “Please. Fun for you, maybe.”

“Stop pestering her, Wilkes,” Damian growled, sour at the situation as a whole. He yanked moodily at the collar of his shirt at the nape of his neck, pulling it over his head in one swift motion.

“Come on, Ri. I know you know what I’m talking about.”

“X'hal, Colin, quit being immature. It’s not like that’s what she actually looked like. That picture was way photoshopped.”

“I know, but the general pose is still–”

“She said no, Colin,” Damian told him gruffly, crossing his arms over his bare chest.

Colin shot him a quelling glance before turning back to Mar'i. “I know that. Don’t you think it would be fun to compare, though? It’s just me, I won’t do anything creepy with it.”

“Well…” She looked from Colin to Damian unsurely, a smile tugging at one corner of her mouth. Damian’s displeasure seemed to push me her more toward Colin’s side of the argument. “X'hal. Okay, fine.”

Colin grinned and readied his phone while Damian sighed and continued to look as menacing as one could look in a bathing suit and sandals.

Mar'i dipped beneath the surface one more time, gathering her hair to the front while she was submerged. It dripped in front of her in an inky-black mess of thick waves, and she allowed flames to sizzle at the end. “Ready?”

“The camera’s always ready for you, baby,” he crooned, a lopsided smile on his face and laughter in his voice.

“Colin…” Damian snapped, annoyed. He was ignored by both his friends.

“One… Two… Three!” Mar'i flipped her head back, water arcing and catching the light as the shutter sound that signified a picture had been taken went off from Colin’s phone. Her hair slapped against her back, her part resting unevenly as it settled, the tips hanging in the water.

“Got it!” Colin cheered. “It’s just like the one of your mom, except, you know, you look like a real person.”

“It’s not my mom’s fault that some weirdo touched up her photo,” Mar'i sulked.

“I know, I’m just saying. Wanna take a look?” Colin held his phone over the surface of the water for her to see, and she pushed forward until her fingers touched the edge of the pool to get a better look.

She rolled her eyes. “Are you serious? It’s literally a picture of me flipping my hair. I don’t really see what’s so sexy about that.”

“Hm,” Colin hummed, turning the screen so he could see it. “I’d explain it to you, but I’d feel weird. Maybe Damian can tell you about it sometime.” Colin scrunched up his face as though Damian and Mar'i’s relationship was unpleasant for him.

Mar'i turned her bright eyes to Damian. “What do you think?” she asked, tilting her head curiously.

“I think this is beneath me,” he muttered, “as it should be beneath you.”

“Oh, just take a look,” she sighed.

Damian shrugged and closed the distance between him and Colin to see the picture. He remained silent, and his expression did not change except for a blush blooming around his neck and cheeks.

“Damian?” Mar'i called, concerned, while Colin sniggered at his reaction.

“It looks fine,” he snapped at her. In a more controlled voice, he said to Colin, “My apologies.”

“Huh?” Colin lowered his phone in confusion. “Apologies for wha–Oof!”

Before Colin could finish his sentence, Damian shoved him roughly in the back, sending him sprawling into the pool.

“Damian!” Mar'i gasped, scolding.

He shrugged unapologetically.

Colin spat pool water from his mouth as he emerged, spluttering and coughing. “My phone!” he lamented as he shook his wet hair out of his eyes.

“I shall buy you a new phone,” Damian said evenly.

“That wasn’t nice,” Mar'i sighed as Damian toed off his sandals calmly.

“I am not nice,” he answered in a resigned tone.

Mar'i and Colin exchanged a glance and Mar'i shot a starbolt from her fist, knocking Damian off balance and making him fall into the pool.

“Now you’re even,” she said to Colin with a smile.


End file.
